New Delhi: For the 1,000-odd Indians in Kharkiv’s western suburb, it is now an anxious wait. On Wednesday, the Indian embassy had issued an urgent advisory instructing all Indian nationals to leave the Ukrainian city by 6 pm local time. The advisory gave a choice of three nearby cities that they could go to, but almost all who managed to leave Kharkiv walked down to Pisochyn, a western suburb that is 11 km from the city.Nimisha Lumba was among the hundreds of Indian students who trekked out of Kharkiv with their belongings on their backs.For the past week, Nimisha and the rest of her compatriots had been living in a hostel basement that was turned into a bunker for protection from the heavy shelling battering Kharkiv. The second-largest city in Ukraine is close to the Russian border and is in the middle of heavy fighting between the Ukrainian and Russian armies.On Wednesday morning, Nimisha walked eight kilometres through the war-ravaged streets to the railway station at around 6 am. Their plan was to take a train to any of the cities in western Ukraine, which were out of the conflict zone.But, they were unable to board any train at the station, as only Ukrainian women and children were being allowed into the bogeys, she said.After the advisory came in the afternoon, she had no choice but to take the decision to walk down to Pisochyn.As they were walking down through Kharkiv, danger was all around them. “In one of the places, less than 100 metres from us, there was a missile…we were guided by the Ukrainian military to run,” she told The Wire.The long column of Indian students walked in silence to the neighbouring city of Pisochyn. “Obviously after walking down to railway station in the morning and waiting for hours, we were already tired. On the way, we were not allowed to take breaks because the Ukrainian military was along with us. The entire atmosphere was panicky and threatening. It’s not as if we were taking a leisurely walk.”They had already been told to go towards a hotel in Pisochyn by their coordinators and seniors, where they are waiting anxiously for their next move. “We do not have any plans on evacuation. We just keep hearing that we may be evacuated from the Russian border,” she said.On Thursday night, the Indian embassy issued a new registration form for all Indians in Kharkiv (excluding those in Pioschyn), which also raised hopes that an evacuation will happen soon. In Pisochyn, the initial plan seems to be to get the students out by buses to either western Ukraine or the Moldovan border.Meanwhile, Indian students in Pisochyn said in social media posts that they were running out of food. मध्य प्रदेश के बड़वानी के ध्रुव गुप्ता समेत खार्किव नेशनल यूनिवर्सिटी के करीब 800 छात्र खार्किव से 14 किलोमीटर दूर पेसोचिन में बेहद मुश्किल हालात में फंसे हैं, कृपया मदद करें @JM_Scindia @opganga @DrSJaishankar pic.twitter.com/GS8LQczrEf— Ankush Mahajan (@ankushm43) March 4, 2022Pooja Praharaj, a postgraduate student, claimed that the students managed to persuade a local to get vegetables in bulk from a godown in the nearby area to the hotel where they were lodged.Even in the settlement of Pisochyn, there was the constant sound of shelling and overhead aircraft in the background.The fate of the foreign students has already become a diplomatic football between Ukraine and Russia, with each accusing the other of keeping them “hostage”. India had to issue a denial on Thursday morning that any Indian nationals were being held “hostage”. In fact, the Indian government has repeatedly expressed appreciation for the Ukrainian authorities in facilitating Indians to leave Kharkiv, both in written statements and in Indian advisories.Nevertheless, Russian President Vladimir repeated the ‘hostage’ accusation, which was earlier made in a phone conversation with Indian PM, in a speech broadcast on state television on Thursday night. He claimed that over 3,000 people were being kept forcibly at the Kharkiv railway station, with a smaller number at Sumy.At a media briefing on Thursday, MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi stated that talks were going on with the Russians and Ukrainians on ways to evacuate Indian students, but he didn’t want to get drawn into the details. He was answering a query on the assertion by a senior Russian military officer that 130 buses were ready to ferry out Indian students from the conflict zone in Ukraine through the nearest Russian border point.“Whether it is exactly by a bus or a train or which route I think we are not really prescriptive on that. So if it works out, great, but I’m not aware of how that will work out. We have teams in Belgorod, we have [teams] in Kursk, [if] that route works out, great, but I’m not aware of any subsequent developments on that,” said Bagchi.